Resurrection Christian baseball still on the prowl

Defending 2A diamond champs want more

By Mike Brohard Sports Editor

Posted:
03/07/2013 09:07:13 PM MST

Resurrection Christian School baseball coach Grant MacAlmon runs his team through infield practice this week, taking advantage of a break in the weather. MacAlmon takes over a team that won the Class 2A state title last year and returns many key players.
(Steve Stoner)

For years, the program had to deal with heartbreak.

Resurrection Christian School's baseball program had a run of hitters and pitchers that would carry them into the postseason year after year. Many times, they would be looked at as the favorite to win it all in Class 2A. But there were two losses in championship games, even an upset in the regional round that left the Cougars stunned.

But now that's all changed. With a load of senior leadership, Rez was able to take the crown in 2012, ending that string of frustration. While those seniors have graduated -- and even longtime head coach Tad Carls has headed elsewhere -- the Cougars still bring experience to the season with a group of key contributors who were all sophomores during the run.

Make no mistakes, now that the program has what it has always desired, Chance Richardson said the hunger is still there. And once the gang is all together (a postseason run in basketball has others focused elsewhere), Richardson said the group is looking forward to the challenge of being the team on top.

"It's the best feeling ever, everybody out to get us," Richardson said. "Let's continue to be the team to beat, just utilize our talents and continue to strive for the biggest goal and get better as a team and better individually. It's fun to try to beat the best, but once you are, that's even a greater feeling, and we're in that position right now."

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The team motto last year was unfinished business, so the Cougars will obviously need a new rallying cry. They won't, however, have to get used to a new voice. Grant MacAlmon takes over after serving the past four years as an assistant for Carls. That puts him in the role of knowing exactly what the program has gone through and how to approach the next campaign.

He likes the fire his players have, but he also wants to keep them from getting burned.

"It's been an interesting challenge for me to balance high expectations. These guys, they want to win again, and it's been pretty neat to see these junior boys want to share that memory with these other young up-and-coming guys," MacAlmon said. "There's a real pride in the program in what they've built. My challenge is to keep the expectations in check. You go from losing the state title in 2010 and getting upset in the regional round of 2009. Those were just disappointing ends to the season. So much was built into the expectation if we didn't end up winning the last game it was a failure."

MacAlmon admits this is an ideal time to step into the lead role. He has his ace back from last year in Jake Lohr (7-1, 1.45 ERA and 81 strikeouts in 53 innings), and three key players in Richardson, Brett Bakersky and Matt Cooksey, all of whom are juniors, all of whom will fill the leadership void.

"The three of us need to step up and lead us," Richardson said. "We lost six seniors last year, and had a great leading class. We just need to step up. We've been there, we know the feeling, and we portray that to the team. We do our best to not do too much and stay within ourselves. In every situation, we just need to be leaders."

Seniors Josh Miller, Zach Samples and Aaron Gravatt are back for another run, as is sophomore Luke Mondt, giving MacAlmon some balance to start with, as well as a handful of players who hit better than .300 in 2012.

While Mondt is expected to fall into line behind Lohr on the mound, both of them will have to work their arms into shape once the basketball season comes to an end. MacAlmon said he can wait, because that will give him time to give others some early innings to see how the rotation takes shape.

By the end of the season, MacAlmon expects the Cougars to be back in the hunt with a chance to hang another banner. What he's trying to impress upon his young group is it won't come easy, not with everybody now gunning for the Cougars."I think we're going to be able to compete," he said. "You've got to have a break or two as well, but I think we'll compete."